The pain and hurdles of getting a Proper Car

If you have a car you can easily associate with the trouble one goes before they are able to get their first Car.

When you were getting your first car I can imagine the trouble you went through before you were able to settle on one unit. From scrupulous dealers to vehicles that do not match the description that has already been provided. I can relate to the trouble and I believe I share the same story with most people.

Hypothetically, after college you decided to relocate to a new continent for mission work with an international NGO. The terrain is not so friendly so you have to look for a good car to help you navigate around. As you know, being fresh from school, one does not have so much in savings therefore you will be looking for a unit that is cost effective in terms of fuel consumption as well as maintenance. If you are used to Left hand driving but your new country dictates that all vehicles have to be right hand drive vehicles. First hiccup but it is not a major issue, you can manage this. You decide to approach your employer to help you with some small top up to get your preferred unit. Your boss is compliant to your request and you get the money in time. The next day the vehicle hunt is on. Just like any other country in the world vehicle due diligence is necessary lest you are given a unit that is faulty and you are stuck at the garage half of the life time of the vehicle.

You know most first car owners are green.

It is even worse when you do not have anybody to take you around and they already have a car. Just like wine, the more you stay with a car the better you get to understand it and its functionality. Combing through the internet for local car dealers, you star mark a couple of units that you would wish to go check out. You hit the road with a friend to go and confirm. As you would imagine, you get the unit as intact as you had envisaged through the online portal. Now you ready to test drive the unit and you are allowed. The Car is a Mercedes C 200 and you can see the excitement already in your eyes. Driving around for 10 minutes and you cannot even notice the subtle difference in the sound it makes and how it moves. A friend you had brought along starts to question the sales agent about the lights on the dash board and the vibration from the gear box.

All this time you are thinking to yourself how “cool” you look and how respected you might be amongst your friends.

Back to the sales agent, he hesitates to answer then gives a general response that it is not a big issue a mechanic will just resolve it quickly. From the way he answers couple with the look on your friends face you realize that you might actually end up getting a raw deal. So, after the drive you tell the agent you will get back to him if you finalize on the arrangement. You visit a couple more car yards before bumping into an impressive BMW. You didn’t need to make a statement with the car when approaching anybody because the car was a statement by itself. You test drive it before realizing that their is a squeaking sound on the rear right wheel. You are at the mercy of your friend who would question this. At least he owned a unit and could easily tell what is off with any car. Again, you are told it was nothing major but on close inspection you realized the suspension need urgent replacement. You didn’t even know it would cost quite a substantial amount. Since it is begin to get frustrating, your friend calls a colleague who is also in the automotive industry to help him figure out the problem. He tells him that you are a first car owner and needed to figure out a unit you could use. The shock in your eyes is clearly visible when you told that you do not need to worry much about checking them out manually as there is a state of the art machinery that can do accurate fault finding for any Mercedes or BMW brand that you are interested in. It works with ease to do a diagnostic to the car and you would not need manual inspection to ensure the car is ok. Much has been written about the diagnostic device and you can read more.

It was much easier for you to get the unit later once you employ technology to help look into a good unit that you can drive. I can imagine you took a BMW X3 and it wouldn’t have been any easier if you would not have gone the technology route.